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Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) announced Wednesday that he will vote for a 60-page resolution that incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi has described as historic changes that would "allow Democrats to clean up Congress.” | J. Scott Applewhite, File/AP Photo

GOP lawmaker blesses Democratic rules package

A Republican lawmaker is planning to support a slew of changes to House rules authoredby Democrats, becoming the first member to break ranks for a full rules proposal in 18 years.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) announced Wednesday that he will vote for a 60-page resolution that incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi has described as historic changes that would "allow Democrats to clean up Congress.”

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“Tomorrow, I will put my voting card where my mouth is,” Reed, the co-leader of the bipartisan House Problem-Solvers Caucus, wrote on Twitter.

Reed decided to vote “yes” after Democratic leaders agreed to several of the group's long-sought changes to the House’s notoriously top-down legislative structure, his spokesman Will Reinert said Wednesday.

“[The caucus] felt that real reforms were necessary that could actually bring legislation to the floor,” Reinert said. “He didn’t get all the reforms he asked for, but he felt this was a show of good faith.”

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Other Republican members of the moderate group are also expected to support the package on Thursday, though none have yet come forward publicly.

Since July, Reed and other Problem-Solvers Caucus members have sought a procedural overhaul to lessen the sharp partisan divide in the House, in part by making it easier for rank-and-file members to bring their own bills onto the floor for a vote.

That lobbying intensified after Democratswon control of the House after the midterms. For weeks, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), along with other Democratic members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, threatened to withhold their votes to elect Pelosi as speaker unless leadership agreed to some of the rules changes.

Pelosi and her deputies eventually struck a deal that supporters say will open up the floor process with more amendments, more votes on bipartisan bills and a more balanced party breakdown in committees.

Reed’s support for the package — which will be the first vote of the 116th Congress — is an unusual blessing for Pelosi on the eve of divided government.

Reed told the Washington Post, which first reported his support for the package, that he had been threatened with “consequences” from his own leadership because of his support. A spokesman declined to elaborate on Thursday.